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Leo Holloway
Leo is a Xathamite gunslinger who found himself in the World Serpent Inn through a cosmic anomaly. He was one of the five adventurers that killed the green dragon warlock Razcoreth in the Feywild. He is one of the original Onyx Ravens and is responsible for returning much of the waste of Xathal to a jungle once again. After the Inn Leo joined a small group of planeswalkers including himself, Clink, Teal Cardahn, Kaz Shadowfuse, and Sillah Deathfall. They found themselves in the Feywild at the same time as the Seelie Court's palace and through making conversation with Squelaiche, managed to secure a leprechaun guide through the Murkendraw. The escort turned South almost immediately when their guide, Carroway, was killed by a ricochet from Leo's gun during an encounter with some particularly nasty trolls and Caz was afflicted with a nasty case of swamp fever that drained his intelligence and left him greatly fatigued. Salvation came from the swamp in the form of Baba Yaga who negotiated with the party to explore an old crypt and retrieve a magic lantern which could guide them out of the Murkendraw. The crypt ended up being one of the original belonging to the Cardahn family, and was occupied by Neversong vampires who were guarding the imprisoned fey they had captured, including the one trapped inside the lantern. The party left the vampires destroyed and saved themselves. This played out in a way the witch did not foresee. The lantern was recovered, the vampires slain, and then the lantern was taken to Harrowhame where the adventurers met the bandit known as the Silver Fox, who told them about Razcoreth's hold on the forest. Worrying about interruptions on their way to Shinaelestra (the ancestral home of Teal) the adventurers assisted the Silver Fox in sabotaging the green dragon, fighting his lieutenants and entering the underground temple of the Queen of Air and Darkness, where her vestige lay beneath the earth. Believing falsely that Razcoreth would be there, the dragon's deception proved unsuccessful. By bringing the lantern of the Queen's essence to the place where the vestige laid, the resurrection of the goddess seemed inevitable, but was stopped by the actions of the warlock Caz, who desecrated the temple and burnt the lantern- as an offering to his patron- an unexpected turn that sent a large portion of her former portfolio directly into the writhing tentacles of the Great Old One Vhuzompha. As the party moved further in the Silver Fox moved excavation equipment they found inside, positioning a large drill over the altar of the Queen- knowing it was a source of the green dragon's power yet not understanding its purpose truly. Kaz once again defiled the vestigial altar, before helping drop the drill on top of it, crushing the vestige. As the altar began to crumble Razcoreth filled the temple with oil, in an attempt to burn out the adventurers, but was thwarted by the Silver Fox who revealed himself to be a Mercury Dragon. In an act of self-sacrifice he burned in the oil as he held the doors open. The green dragon, disconnected from his patron was made short work of, and the evils of the Queen of Air and Darkness officially came to an end. Caz, searching the realm of Razcoreth, corrupted a former shrine for fey spirits creating a well where souls could be offered to Vhuzompha. He found himself in the vicinity later of the Lake of Dreams, which he immediately fell into and drowned. In an instant he was resurrected by his patron, a show of good-faith to her faithful. In support of his queen he changed his name from Caz to Kaz. The party made their way to the ruins of the former city of Shinaelestra, which they found was occupied by a group of half-elven rangers led by an incredibly ancient and dying priest, the oldest Cardahn and only remaining member of the clan inside the ruins. He told Teal and the rest about how to restore the former palace, an extraplanar space that they could return to and use for planar travel with the securing of lodestones, however the keys were kept inside of the treasure room of the mad queen of the Fomorians, Connomae who was the leader of Vor Thomil. The party slipped into Vor Thomil through a set of aging steam vents worked by the Forlarren, a terrifying blend of fey and fiend that gave insight into the degredation of the underground city and Connomae's negotiations with the powerful devil Moloch. Taking a forlarren named Kryx with them as a companion, the party navigated through the vents into the kingdom's deepest dungeons where they inadvertently freed Tyrim Neversong, a vampire long-lost to time in a magical stasis. Tyrim had many regrets and decided to help Teal restore the palace in the hopes he could one day restore their former city. Tyrim went on a bloody rampage across Vor Thomil, killing fomorians and devils by the dozen in order to distract any guards from the treasure chamber where Connomae displayed her many symbols of opulence. The treasure room was easily accessed, once the boiling steam vents were navigated with few injuries, yet retrieving the 'key' proved difficult. The room was host to a golem made of an amalgamation of treasure. Once the golem was taken care of the treasure was their's for the taking. Sillah snagged an ancient looking stone bracelet that summoned a construct mount, the mythical golden boar Gullinbursti that once belonged to Freyr. Teal found the key after several minutes of careful searching- it took the form of a device. When they returned to Shinaelestra Tyrim met them at the former palace facade where the decrepit leader of the ranger settlement was ready to take his last breath. With Teal in his rightful place as heir to the city he passed on. Tyrim took Teal's blood with the device and showed him the palace, which was host to Vara, a construct that controlled the subplane the palace inhabited. The palace was reformed to fit the needs of Teal and his companions and the locations of available lodestones were revealed. Unfortunately all but one was disabled. Tyrim used the palace to travel to the material plane, stepping out into the city of Alleria. With time on their hands once again, the party took it upon themselves to start reforming their city, using their gold to create businesses and rebuilding the structures around the settlement. Teal started his shipping company and Kaz started a business front for his new cult. They doubled back to Razcoreth's lair and began the process of removing treasure from his hoard, where they came face to face with his former lieutenant Bargus. Bargus had become preserved in a state of eternal rot and decay, an entity of undeath and entropy. He struck down Clink in the conflict and nearly took Teal with him before being destroyed by the others. Kaz cut out the mummy's heart and kept it in a jar of saltwater. The saltwater heart regrew, becoming a terrifying eldritch lich that Kaz led to the ocean of the material plane from Shinaelestra during a shift. After the settlement had been greatly restored and was even seeing a burst in immigration from the material plane (namely Ravenholdt) and the success of the courier service between the material plane and Feywild, it was clear that Shinaelestra had a chance to be a city once again. Teal hired a halfling that had some renown as his head guard and, confident in the protection of the settlement, he set out with his party once again. The party met the warlock Zahera during this time, as she was examining strange phenomena with souls in the area around Shinaelestra (likely a consequence of Kaz's rituals with Bargus's heart). They tracked down the lich to the ocean and almost killed the monster in its infancy before being held back by Kaz. The monster escaped. Sillah Deathfall was in search of a powerful relic known as the Acorn of Wo Mai. The search led them first to the Plane of Elemental Air where they met with the great Caliph of the Djinni, Husam al-Balil ben Nafhat al-Yugayyim. He bid them to travel to the city of Settis where he believed his son Prince Ali'Khashar al-Balil ben Nafhat al-Yugayyim was murdered, and implores the party to search his son's tomb in order to retrieve an elemental gem that was both powerful as well as sentimental to the Caliph. The party in Settis made contact with the seedy underground of a city of slaves connected to the City of Brass and led by the former viziers of the Princess of the Ifriti, Omaira al-Sidan al-Harriq Ibnat Lazan, who were actually acting in their own interests while the princess was completely isolated in mourning for the lost prince, who she had eloped with millennia before. The party, with the help of the slavers, was shown where the crypt of the elemental prince was, and by excavating it they discovered evidence of a plot by the Dao. The prince of Dao had organized the murder of the prince of the Djinni. At the end of the tomb the party fought the head vizier of Settis and were victorious, yet their journey left Kaz greatly injured after he was submerged in molten lava, merging his magic goggles with his flesh and fusing his symbol of Vhuzompha with his skin. He was horribly disfigured. They placed their hands upon the gem and began to signal for the Caliph to take them away, but were interrupted by two events: the arrival of the princess of Ifrit and the accidental release of the very-much-not-murdered prince of the djinn. The prince gave his father word that he was alive, allowed for the party to give the Caliph his gem, and then the two went to the paraelemental plane of smoke for a holiday. Sillah was rewarded by the Caliph with the acorn of Wo Mai- a banded pendant in the shape of an acorn harboring an ancient spirit that offered advice in exchange for the promise to one day release it. The party took a selection of slaves from Settis to Shinaelestra where they were freed and given options to stay and utilize their skills to support the city, which they almost all agreed to. Working in workshops, forges, courier services, protection services, and a soap company the group was able to make the city a bright and vibrant hub for life and bustling hub for commerce for those who knew the way and understood the shift. Leo and Kaz were overtook with nightmares coinciding with the opening of the Halls of the Elder Gods, a massive mega-dungeon that sprawled sub-planes with the promise of great power within. The dungeon had been created by the group known as the Elder Gods in order to give mortals the tools needed to defend their worlds against the forced of the Outer Gods and the Great Old Ones, as well as challenges for mortals to attain great amounts of power without the direct interference of the gods in question. Leo was given images of his homeland, a terrible wasteland, while Kaz was given direct guidance on what the reward of Boccob was- a powerful single-use spell that was capable of releasing or sealing away any extraplanar entity, from Great Old One to a god. Kaz sought to use this to release Vhuzompha and bring about her glorious vision for the future. The party ventured inside of the dungeon and, with some difficulty made it through the floor of Boccob- which had been infiltrated by followers of Vecna and Shub Niggurath who had set a shoggoth upon them. On their way through the floor Kaz and Zahera fell victim to a nasty bit of magic- a sphere of annihilation, and they both lost limbs. Kaz had one leg and pressed on, while Zahera lost all of her limbs. She was returned randomly to the Material Plane where she would be nursed back to health, but she would never see what the Elder Gods had to offer. Narrowly surviving with the additional help of an orc named Xoruk, an old man named Lokken, and a strange revenant, the party banished the shoggoth and continued onward to the layer of Bast. Bast's layer provided challenges of combat which Kaz was not successful in completing. He had been sacrificed by a crazed goblin cultist of Loki in the middle of the fight. The party attempted after the fight had been called to retrieve Kaz's soul, but were stopped by Skadi. After mourning Kaz (briefly) the party made their way to the layer of Nuada where they met a second party led by a large Ursine named Angus who was accompanied by three awakened cats named Boots, Mittens, and Maurice. The two parties worked together to figure out the steps for a ritual that would allow movement to the next layer, and the main party was accompanied by Itzli, a tabaxi bard. While navigating the layer the party came into contact with a Rakshasa calling himself Prince Qadeem. The party fought tooth and nail through a spore-infested beholder and a giant trapdoor spider- the latter killed their companion Maurice- before facing Prince Qadeem for the ability to leave the layer. Qadeem was a formidable enemy, killing all of the awakened cats before being vanquished, and then the party was ready to move on to the realm of Loki. Lokken, the old man and companion of the group was restored to godhood when reaching the realm, his spirit and vestige coalescing into one and the revenant realized his true identity- that of Nari. The three, Loki, Nari, and Helya talked with the party and the goddess of death warned them about a foreseeable war of the gods spurred on by entities in the Feywild based on a terrible misuse of power. Helya resurrected the cats for Angus, who left the dungeon with his party soon after. Loki saw the party on to the layer of Hathor, a veritable paradise and city where adventurers had congregated. After brief rest they made their way to Auril's realm, where they came in contact with the Prince of Frost, who was amassing an army in the sub-plane and training them for combat. He confronted Teal, asking him to bend the knee for an eventual invasion led by the Court of Winter. Teal refused and a furious Prince of Frost allowed them to go further, counting on their deaths in the dungeon. The party met an avatar of Tyr in his layer and they were judged for their senses of justice, which he deemed adequate, then he gave them a challenge to avoid the layer of the Primus (and his league of Inevitables). The party succeeded (except for Sillah) and made it to the layer of Set and the end of the dungeon. Sillah found herself by accident in a sort of jail on the layer and managed to negotiate her release by giving one of Razcoreth's wings to a guard. She was released and in turn released another prisoner on her way out- a Sun Elf who had seen better days. Together the party faced the final challenge- the general of Set- the fiendish Typhon. The battle was fought hard and won by the party, who destroyed the demon for good. The party was victorious, and claimed their rewards from the nine gods of the layer. Itzli became a champion of Bast, gaining dexterity and skills that were unnatural. Leo used the gift of Nuada to restore life to Xathal, turning much of the wasteland into jungle once more. Teal took the magical bow of Auril, with the hopes that he never need it. Loki offered the soul of Kaz and the chance to be his champion to the party. Nari quickly became his champion with no contest, ascending to godhood in the process. Nari used the gift of Hathor to return Fenrir to life. Sillah used the gift of Boccob to free Soneillon from the Acorn of Wo Mai. The party used the gift of the Primus to restore the Prince of Frost's lover Koliada to life, thereby ending the upcoming conflict in the Feywild by removing his forces from the equation. A golden horn of Ysgard given by Tyr was hung around Gullinbursti's neck, so that Sillah could one day unlock the secrets of her mount. Their final act was to use the dark gifts of Set for good, by sending a plague upon the slavers of Settis. With their work completed, the party disbanded and so too did the Halls of the Elder Gods dissolve. Category:Player Characters